Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Leonard Cohen (1965)

Directors:

Donald Brittain
Don Owen

Writer:

Donald Brittain (written by)

Genre:

Documentary | Biography

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Literature | Performance Artist | Poetry | Poet | Leonard Cohen

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Donald Brittain	...	Himself
Leonard Cohen	...	Himself
Robert Hirschhorn	...	Himself (friend)
Irving Layton	...	Himself (poet)
Derek May	...	Himself (friend)
Mort Rosengarten	...	Himself (friend)

Runtime:

45 min

Country:

Canada

Language:

English | French | Greek

Color:

Black and White

Company:

National Film Board of Canada (NFB)

Movie Connections:

Featured in Looking for Leonard (2002)

Interesting for Cohen Fans, but Rather Pretentious

This documentary is somewhat lame. It is very worshipful towards Leonard Cohen. There are scenes in Canadian lecture halls where people laugh at his every word, and I wasn't even sure half the time that he was joking. You can tell Cohen doesn't really care. In fact, he speaks in silly little poetic quips that become awfully annoying very quickly. In fact, after the documentary part of the movie is done, there is an interview with Cohen after he has just watched the film. A piece of film that was recorded and not included in the actual documentary is very telling: it shows Cohen writing "CAVEAT EMPTOR" on the wall above a bathtub while he is bathing. Yes, the buyer should beware in this case.

Oh, and speaking of buying, you can buy this on VHS or DVD if you really want it. Just go to Amazon.com and search for it. The DVD has a few supplemental short films which are actually more interesting than the feature. There is a goofy music video for "I'm Your Man," and a couple of really marvelous video montages coupled with Cohen's poetry.

6/10